Team News

Nicely Takes Mission Trip Voyage

Liberty pitcher Clarence Nicely with some of the participants at one of the clinics his SCORE Internationl group held in the Dominican Republic.

Liberty Flames pitcher Clarence Nicely recently was one of 160 men who participated in SCORE International's annual baseball outreach in the Dominican Republic.

During the week of Nov. 12, Nicely, a junior right-hander from Milton, W.Va., was part of the mission's outreach which put on daily baseball clinics, provided disaster relief and shared the word of God throughout the country.

Over 8,000 boys attended the 10 baseball clinics put on by the group, which included professional and college baseball players and coaches, businessmen, doctors and pastors, and heard a clear gospel presentation at the end of the day. SCORE reports that over 2,000 at the clinics responded to receive Christ.

Each day, the group split into four teams which went to different areas of the country and put on baseball clinics for the area's children. After each clinic, one of the professional players on the trip spoke, sharing their testimony. The professional players with the SCORE team included Mariano Rivera and Andy Phillips of the New York Yankees, Aaron Ledesma of the Tamp Bay Devil Rays and Eric Stults of the Los Angeles Dodgers. A pastor then presented the gospel and an invitation to the clinic's participants.

"Most of the kids came to the park with nothing, but shirt and shoes," stated Nicely about the clinics. "At most of the clinics, it was crazy. There were so many poor kids surrounding us, we could not pass out the caps and t-shirts we had with us. As we were driving off in our bus, we opened the windows and handed things out.

"It was a great week. It was an awesome time to reach the Dominican people, but it was also a growing and humbling experience for me."

Besides putting on baseball clinics, the group also distributed food and clothing in areas ravaged by Tropical Storm Noel. In conjunction with local churches, Nicely and his fellow SCORE team members distributed food and clothing and helped in clean-up and rebuilding efforts.

SCORE International is a ministry to expose people to short-term missions. The purpose of the sports-based ministry is to evangelize, encourage missionaries and equip participants to do the work of foreign missions. SCORE hopes to produce career missionaries and create greater partnerships between local churches in the USA and foreign missionaries.

SCORE baseball clinics have been some of the most powerful evangelistic tools the organization has ever had. Last year, the clinics drew over 4,000 Dominicans, with over 800 accepting Jesus Christ as Savior.